REDONDO BEACH, Calif.,
April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/
-- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) joined Griffith
Observatory April 24-26 with daily
events to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the launch of the
Hubble Space Telescope. Griffith Observatory, in Los Angeles, hosted speaking programs, a star
party and special guest appearances by NASA astronauts Col.
Mark Vande Hei and Story Musgrave,
who met the public and signed autographs.
Kicking off the weekend Friday, April
24, Griffith Observatory hosted a day of discovery,
examining the origin, history, science and cultural impacts of
Hubble. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Ken Carpenter, Space Telescope Science
Institute's Rosa Diaz and Griffith
Observatory's David Reitzel and
Laura Danly hosted the in-depth
discussion. The event video is available on the Griffith
Observatory website,
http://livestream.com/GriffithObservatoryTV.
On Saturday, April 25, NASA
astronaut Mark Vande Hei visited
Griffith Observatory, sharing his experiences and meeting
attendees. Before and after Col. Vande
Hei's appearance, Carpenter was joined by retired Lt. Col.
Russ Matijevich (USAF), director of
business and product development for AOA Xinetics, a Northrop
Grumman company. Carpenter and Lt. Col. Matijevich hosted a
discussion of Hubble through the years, including the many
servicing missions that allowed Hubble scientists to make so many
critical discoveries. "AOA Xinetics is proud of our heritage
supporting the first servicing mission, which enabled Hubble to
produce incredible imagery of our universe," said Lt. Col.
Matijevich.
In support of the first servicing mission, the AOA Xinetics team
developed a new system to accurately measure and test Hubble's
corrective optics to verify they provided the necessary fix so
Hubble could return to work on orbit. In partnership with NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Xinetics founder Mark Ealey also built the articulating fold
mirror within the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), a
mission-critical component for Hubble's primary mirror correction
within the camera. WFPC2 operated on-board Hubble for over 15 years
and was responsible for many significant scientific discoveries,
including the Hubble Deep Field image.
The program Saturday concluded with a star party on the lawn of
Griffith Observatory with telescopes from Griffith Observatory, the
Los Angeles Astronomical Society, Sidewalk Astronomers and the
Planetary Society.
Sunday, April 26, Carpenter hosted
two discussions on the future of space telescopes, including NASA's
James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey
Telescope (WFIRST). Musgrave shared his experiences as Payload
Commander for the first Hubble servicing mission and was available
for autographs.
The free weekend celebrations wrapped up with an in-depth
discussion of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's next
observatory that is expected to unleash a new dawn of discovery.
Northrop Grumman's Amy Lo,
astrophysicist and observatory alignment thread lead for Webb,
reviewed the history of ground- and space-based telescopes,
culminating with Webb's science mission. Scott Willoughby, vice president and Webb
program manager, Northrop Grumman, shared some of the engineering
challenges behind building the most advanced space telescope ever
constructed and discussed the program's current progress. The event
video is available on the Griffith Observatory website at
http://livestream.com/GriffithObservatoryTV.
For more information, visit
www.griffithobservatory.org/events/Hubble_Anniversary_2015.html.
AOA Xinetics, a Northrop Grumman company, designs, develops, and
manufactures a wide variety of standard and custom electro-optic
and optomechanical systems for government, industrial and
commercial customers. Since its inception, AOA Xinetics has been
manipulating light from the corner grocer to the edges of the
universe, providing customers with the highest quality products and
services.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing
innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems,
cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and
commercial customers worldwide. Please visit
www.northropgrumman.com for more information.
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SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation